Abstract :
Ethereal, evanescent, elusive¿these are adjectives a poet might use to describe the fragile stuff of clouds. They are accurate, and evocative, but still another adjective¿electrified¿may prove to be more important in the years immediately ahead. Workers in the fields of atmospheric electricity and cloud physics have accumulated sufficient evidence to suggest that electric fields, forces, and charges in the earth´s lower atmosphere play a critical role¿perhaps the critical role¿in the development and behavior of clouds that produce precipitation. This in turn suggests that manipulation of the electrical properties of clouds may someday provide the long-sought key to modification of the weather by man.
